Black Sabbath’s New Album To Drop In June

Black Sabbath will be back with a brand new album that will drop in June. It will likely be titled “13”. It will be the band’s first studio album in 35 years with Ozzy Osbourne back on lead vocals with the original lineup from the classic hard rock band. Since the late ’60’s to the present, the band has gone the full circle.

Back in the the late 1960’s, the band called Earth, that was later to be known as Black Sabbath were a struggling act. But, the friendship of guitarist Tony Iommi and Alvin Lee of Ten Years After proved to be critical to Black Sabbath getting the important gigs that led to their becoming a success. Alvin Lee asked club owners to book his friends in Earth to shows, giving them the critical attention from record companies to get them signed as an act. But, Alvin Lee was horrified when Iommi told him that Earth wanted to rename themselves Black Sabbath. Alvin Lee thought that any band wouldn’t do “any good” with a name with so much negative connotations like that.

Interestingly, while Alvin Lee was always known as one of the fastest fingered guitar players around, Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath sadly lost parts of his fingers one day working in a metal shop in an accident. Iommi wanted to quit the job, but had an argument with his mother over quiting the job, later that day a machine took off parts of his fingers. But, Iommi learned to play with some prosthetic fingertips that he made that he keeps in a box. Even today, Iommi still relies on these prosthetic fingertips to be able to play guitar.

And, after Black Sabbath become a worldwide huge act, they invited Ten After After to play on their bills, returning the favor.

Now, Black Sabbath is set to return back with their first new album with Ozzy Osbourne since NEVER SAY DIE back in 1978. And, if the band tours, you can almost certainly expect more than a few concert goers to go wild, and a few girls to go topless, just like the old days of Black Sabbath.